Thread by @carolecadwalla

NEW: Johnson's relationship with Lebedev snr, isn't a scandal. It's a profound national security failure.

We need to understand Skripal poisoning was a mass murder narrowly averted.

And Johnson's illicit meeting with Kremlin proxy begs urgent questions
theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/m…

Here's why I think the events of March & April 2018 need urgent attention.

Fiona Hill was national security advisor on Russia to Trump & 2 other presidents.

And for her Skripal poisoning is proof that Putin can and will unconventional weapons. Because he already has.
2/

There was enough Novichok in Salisbury to wipe out the entire town.

It was only because of the flukiest fluke that it didn't. By this reading, Charlie Rowley & Dawn Sturgess are the accidental heroes who saved thousands of lives.

3/

Chemical weapons have been banned since 1925. But that's what the Novichok was: a weapon grade nerve agent.

And here's what else you need to know about that pretty Wiltshire market town where Skripal lived. It's also the heart of the British military establishment.

4/

The Skripal attack is the definition of hybrid warfare: a combined military and information operation. That carried a stark, unmistakeable message.

And NATO took it as such. They acted swiftly & unanimously: sanctions & expulsions.

But there was one weak link: Boris Johnson
5/

1 year later, @guardian revealed Johnson left crucial NATO meeting & flew to Lebedev's villa.

4 months later, we at @observeruk revealed Alexander Lebedev flew in to meet him.

And it's this, this, THIS that's crucial point.

Because Lebedev has to be seen as Kremlin proxy.
6/

Boris Johnson met ex KGB spy immediately after crucial NATO meeting on Russia after it deployed a chemical weapon in a British town.

He had no security. No-one knew.

But he was not sacked or questioned by police or PM.

Because by the time we found it out, he *was* the PM.
7/

If we can't see this now, we never will.

This has been in plain sight since we reported it in November 2019.

The Intelligence & Security Committee confirmed a cover-up over the Russia Report. A cover-up in which all roads lead back to one man: Boris Johnson
8/

The r/w press has finally discovered Lebedev-Johnson axis. But it's still focussing on wrong details at wrong time. Forget the peerage.

That horse had already bolted. It's THIS 👇

Johnson's actions jeopardised NATO security

@davidlammy @chrisbryant @IoWBobSeely @TomTugendhat

Realised that I'd written a slightly different version of this piece 2 years ago in 2020. And there's another version of it 3 years before that in 2017.

"If Boris Johnson acts like a Russian asset and talks like a Russian asset, is he a Russian asset?"

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…